Grow for Me
by CPU-City
Summary: "I've given you sunshine. I've given you rain. Looks like you're not happy unless I open a vein" / Marth raises a maneater.
1. Prologue (Green Thoughts)

Grow for Me

* * *

"I've given you sunshine

I've given you rain

Looks like you're not happy

Unless I open a vein"

/

Marth raises a maneater.

* * *

**Notes**:

Chapters should get longer eventually. But the first few will be babies. Please bear with me, I haven't writen a fanfic in years. My gears are rusty, aha.

* * *

Prologue

(Green Thoughts)

* * *

On the twenty-first day of the month of September

in an early year of a decade not too long before our own,

the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence.

And this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do,

in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places

* * *

"My name is Sergeant Belmont. Working the twenty-four hour shift on a homicide, and this is my workshop. The part of town that everybody knows about but nobody wants to see. Where the tragedy is deeper, the ecstasy is wilder, and the crime rate is consistently higher than anywhere else.

_Skid row_.

But homicide alone wasn't the only darkness lurking in the back allies. There was something much deeper than that-something even darker than the silent nights where the worst of events unfolded.

Creatures of the night with a thirst for blood have made themselves comfortable here in skid row. Preying on people already down on their luck-waiting in the shadows with sharp teeth that could tear your flesh straight off of your body as they licked your bones clean.

The streets had taken to calling them 'vampires,' and me? I'm the guy stuck cleaning up the city.

I-"

"And in other news! For our daylight deprived indoor dwellers, there was a total eclipse of the sun today! _Wow, _can you believe that? Since the event earlier today, there has been an onslaught of reports of supernatural activity around the city

The local authorities are asking for all persons with such inquiries to please call a scientist instead of the police department.

Moving on! Local scientists appear to have gone missing! Reports of unanswered phone calls have been streaming in since-"

With nothing more than an unceremonious _click_, the tiny restaurant went nearly silent-save for the clamor in the kitchen and hustle and bustle outside.

It wasn't like anyone besides the owner was really listening anyway. There were only four people in the building-and it could barely cater to twelve at most-and two of those people were the owners, a man named Chrom and his daughter, Lucina. The third person was kid skipping school, and the fourth was a regular-neither of which had come for anything other than a drink.

Chrom spoke from behind the counter to no one in particular, "Jeez, not much good on the radio today, is there? I'm tellin' ya, it's all those supernatural radio dramas that have people imagining ghosts in the street! You know the exact same thing happened in _Castlevania _just last week? A solar eclipse, I mean."

"Huh? Oh...how strange." the regular, a young woman named Peach, replied.

She had honestly tuned out at the mention of Sergeant Belmont. Their part of town was already bad enough. Why anyone would go out of their way to imagine it even worse was beyond her.

"Right? _What a coincidence._ I'm sure later we'll be hearing about vampire attacks that happened while the sky was dark."

Lucina popped up from behind the counter and grabbed herself a drink from the fridge. "I don't know, Dad. A total eclipse does seem like the perfect time for bloodsuckers to suddenly appear."

The girl whirled her apron in front of her like a cape. "You know. _Bleh!"_

Chrom and his daughter both laughed, and, despite herself, Peach couldn't help but laugh a little herself.

"Maybe the next story could be something a little nicer? Like...plants from outer space!"

The laugher grew louder. At the very least satisfied the mood had become a little lighter, Peach stood up and passed her cup of tea across the counter to Chrom. He and Lucina were so happy together, and seeing them together as a family always brightened Peach's spirits on her days free from work.

"Speaking of plants…"

"Headed out so soon?"

"Uh huh! I got a call from Mr. Lowell earlier about some strange new plant he bought today, and he asked me to come check it out."

"You and Marth aren't working on your days off again, are you?"

Already at the door, Peach turned around and waved goodbye. "Of course not! Plants are are his hobby too, you know!"

That, and she didn't know if Mr. Lowell had ever had a day off in his entire life.


	2. Skid Row (Downtown)

Chapter 1

Skid Row (Downtown)

* * *

Someone show me a way to get outta here

'Cause I constantly pray I'll get outta here

Please, won't somebody say I'll get outta here

* * *

His alarm went off at seven, and he rolled-or, it was more like he fell-out of bed, practically taking the entire bed with him. The metal bed frame wailed with every movement, and the floor groaned as he made impact. Everything in the house was slowly falling apart, wear and tear either audible, visual, or most excitingly, _both. _ Even the tin screams of the alarm clock sounded exhausted.

Marth himself was no exception to this household rule, moaning and groaning to himself as he shifted in his thin mound of blankets on the floor. His bones creaked as he stretched-the seams on the sheets reaching their limit-and ached as he condensed back into himself underneath his bedding. He would give anything in the world to stay home from work and lie on the floor all day. Hell, he'd give anything for another five minutes of just sleep.

He took his first deep breath of the day and coughed. Hot and dusty. His absolute favorite. He'd have to wash his bedding on his next day off…Whenever that was. Marth had stopped counting the hours of overtime he'd done that week down at the flower shop. None of it mattered anyway, it's not like he was going to get paid for it. Mr. Koopa wasn't that nice.

Marth threw off the blankets and dragged himself to his feet. He took another breath-cooler and slightly less full of dust-and stretched out to his full height, just one in a series of unimpressive things about him. The cry of the alarm ended as Marth finally slammed his hand against it, though he could still feel it silently ringing in his ears. Yawning, he grabbed his blankets from the floor and did his best to make it look as presentable as possible. All things considered, it didn't look completely terrible for a third hand mattress topped with twenty year old blankets.

Marth had learned a long time ago that complaining wasn't worth the breath it took. Sure, maybe he was stuck living in skid row, but at least he _had _a place to live. _Yeah, _he'd been an orphan most of his life, but Mr. Koopa had come along and "adopted" him eventually. Maybe Mr. Koopa treated him like dirt and called him good-for-nothing. But he was, so it really wasn't _that _bad.

Maybe Marth's life was a mess, but messes could be cleaned up. _Right?_

Speaking of which…

He grabbed his clothes from the chair and did his best to look as presentable as possible. All things considered, he didn't look completely terrible, but that might have had something to do with saving his glasses for last. He grabbed them from his nightstand next and-

-His frames looked huge on his face, but at least they hadn't broken yet like his last pair. Maybe the thin stripes on his blue shirt were starting to fade into the white ones ones, and _maybe _his brown sweater vest didn't look the greatest, but at least they were comfy. _Okay, _he hadn't done that great of a job tucking the bottom of his shirt into the dark blue of his trousers, but he'd be adjusting that that throughout the day anyway.

Residual product in his hair from the day before would be fine enough for styling today, and it only took a moment of running his hands through his hair to finish. No matter what he did, his hair would fight him every morning. Marth figured it was better to try and work with creeping curls then to try and the tame the untamable. At least it looked _kind _of intentional.

Marth smiled at himself in the mirror. Maybe today would finally be his day.

"What do you think, Tooie? I look pretty decent, right?"

Naturally, the plant on the table behind him didn't respond.

Marth turned to his roomate, doing his best to keep the awkward smile on his face. Even if it couldn't reply, it did a fairly okay job of keeping him company on days it didn't make him feel twice as lonely. Aside from that, the plant never really did much of _anything_. Granted, it was a plant, but plants were at least supposed to grow.

It wasn't much, but keeping plants alive was at least one of the things Marth was kind of good at. Even Mr. Koopa would probably admit to that. Maybe. But this plant-Marth just couldn't get through to it. He didn't even know what it _was._

He'd been rummaging through every book on his shelf for the past week and a half just trying to identify the thing-falling asleep at his desk more nights than not. Horticulture. Floriculture. Botany. Aquaponics. Gardening for Idiots. Not a single book he owned seemed to have any information about the spotted red plant in the pot before him.

Marth's smile broke as he took a seat at the table, resting his head face down on the wood.

"You know, I really wish you could just _tell _me what you are, Tooie. You're driving me crazy." Marth sighed as he shifted to look up at the plant. His smile did it's best to reform. "You've got potential. I can just feel it. I _know _you do!"

It wasn't much, but all the morning light that managed to creep in through the basement window shone down like a spotlight on the table. Marth idly reached out for the now hard cut of bread he'd left out yesterday, slathered it with jam, and stood up for a glass of water-offering a sip to the plant before finishing off the rest himself.

"I just don't know how to help you get there…" Whether Marth muttered that to the plant or to himself was a mystery that didn't matter.

He wiped his fingers on his pants and reached for the nearest book he'd left out the night before. Maybe he was just overlooking something.

Or, just maybe, the plant he was trying to tend was one of a kind. The thought alone sparked joy in his chest. It wasn't much, but it was a chance-a shot at getting out of the basement, out of Mr. Koopa's shop, out of the back allies of the city where depression was just status quo.

Sure, not knowing what he was raising left anxiety slowly blooming in the back of his skull, but it also planted the smallest seed of hope.

…And Peach...the gleam in her eyes when she saw the mystery plant the day Marth had brought it home. He could only imagine what her face would look like if he could get the thing growing.

Marth felt his face turn hot.

Maybe, just _maybe, _work wouldn't be so bad today.


End file.
